Archive for the 'english' Category

D’Arcy Norman makes an interesting observation how institutions take on exceptional efforts to keep content such as class slides and video recordings shut away from the public because the slides would violate some copyrights and not necessarily to keep ideas for themselves. I support him in pointing out that avoiding copyrighted material would open up so much content. Putting Creative Commons like licensing in place would prevent those cycles of closures.

On my old email address (word at anarchitect dot org) i get a lot of spam these days. So i thought i discontinue it, as i don’t use it that often anymore anyway. I added this auto-reply so that my contacts that don’t have my new address are directed to the right location and nasty spammers would not just parse it from the auto-reply message:

I have suspended using this Email address.
Please, go to my contact page to get in touch with me.
Thanks for your understanding!

…………………………………………………..

I habe dieses Emailadresse eingestellt. Um mit mir in
Kontakt zu tretten, benutze bitte dieses Formular.
Vielen Dank für dein Verständnis!

…………………………………………………..

Terminé usar esa e-mail. Por favor, visite esta pagina
para poner en contacto conmigo.
Gracias por tu comprensión.

Only problem is that spammers use existing sender addresses they found on the Web. Hence, my auto-responder would automatically increase spam-caused traffic and annoyances for those whose email address was hijacked. Therefor i will just discontinue the mailbox silently and hope that people that want to reach me would remember my name and search for it and would somehow come to this page.

And by the way: this is, of course, proof of my capitulation to the state of email these days. It seems as if email is broken, yet, it still works well enough considering its importance and relevance in professional and personal communication. May somebody have mercy and fix it?

As of today, the Lakota people declare independence of the United States of America. A group of leaders of seven Native American tribes situated mainly in North and South Dakota has cancelled all treaties with the US and created their own country. It is difficult to tell (for me) how well they represent all Lakota people, how they will organize their land and how “their” former federal government will react. It would also be interesting to see how they connect to the struggles of indigenous groups in whole America (read: North, Central and South America). When they brought the message to Washington they also visited multiple Latin American embassies and they declared that they “continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months”. Read up on the Lakota and their progress

• Lakota Freedom Delegation (official page of the Lakota)
• Lakota Indian tribe declares secession from US (Wikinews)
• Lakota (Wikipedia)

PS: While i write this post i am listening to Björk’s “Declare independence” that was dedicated to Greenland and the Faroe Islands…

UPDATE: A recent Wikinews report suggests that the activist group led by Russel Means does not represent the Lakota people and acts without the consent of the elders of the Lakota. Some tribes have openly rejected the actions and other are still considering supporting the activists’ proposal.

The British Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) is advertising the bicycle (high res version) as the suitable means for facing climate change for the rest of us: “You don’t have to be a superhero to save the planet”. More info on the campaign website.

via Rad-Spannerei blog: Zweiradheld

The Uruguayan band Cuarteto de Nos published this über awesome music video for their song “Ya no sé que hacer conmigo”. The video was produced by Milagrito Films mixing beautiful typography with moving halftone characters (read: the band) and infographics:

via information aesthetics: typographical music video

D’Arcy Norman writes about his bicycling experience in Calgary. Interesting observation among others that i’d like to second:

The likelihood of a vehicle displaying a yellow “support our troops” sticker/ribbon seems to be directly proportional to the size of the vehicle. I haven’t seen one on a Prius.

This is also a good occasion to point out that there is a monthly Critical Mass ride in Calgary every last Friday 5:30 pm at Eau Claire Plaza. I have attended the last one and met quite a few friendly people – on bikes.

Instead of over-regulating urban traffic the Dutch concept “shared space” argues for giving the responsibility back to all traffic participants. Instead of scattering traffic signs, traffic lights, and marker lines all over, the design of the public space itself is considered to have the most influence on how car drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians behave. Basic tools are roundabouts, small bumps, and street contractions using water fountains or flower tubs (Wikipedia):

Safety, congestion, economic vitality and community severance can be effectively tackled in streets and other public spaces if they are designed and managed to allow traffic to be fully integrated with other human activity, not separated from it. A major characteristic of a street designed to this philosophy is the absence of traditional road markings, signs, traffic signals and the distinction between “road” and “pavement”. User behaviour becomes influenced and controlled by natural human interactions rather than by artificial regulation.

Also check out the examples from German towns Haslach and Wolfach. Very interesting i think …

via Rad-Spannerei blog: Diskussionsveranstaltung Shared Space

Michael Wesch, the maker of the video about hypertext and the web, created another video. This time he explains to us the changed ways of how information is organized, accessed, and published. I love how the message of these videos are typed and re-edited…

Information R/evolution by Michael Wesch on YouTube

via Valentin and information aesthetics

Now that i have velocipede and shared flat in Calgary – where i am now until spring – i started biking around with my GPS logger on. When i arrive at the university i upload the tracks to OpenStreetMap, add the missing streets and bike tracks. The latter seem to be kind of under-represented probably due to the marginal role of bicycles in Calgary’s commute. So if you have a bike and plan on getting involved with GPS consider contributing to this great open data project, too.